- Issued:
- 2011-01-12
- Updated:
- 2011-01-12
RHBA-2011:0015 - Bug Fix Advisory
Synopsis
kernel bug fix update
Type/Severity
Bug Fix Advisory
Topic
Updated kernel packages that resolve several issues are now available for Red
Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 Extended Update Support.
Description
The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux operating
system.
This update fixes the following bugs:
- Previously, the kernel could encounter a deadlock during module load because
of spinlock starvation. With this update, the kernel no longer requests the
spinlock that caused the contention and thus the deadlock is avoided.
(BZ#651816)
Previously, upward-growing mappings could expand into other mappings. This
caused the corruption of the adjacent mapping and targeted overwriting of data
in the adjacent mapping that otherwise would be impossible due to access
protection. This update prevents upward-growing mappings from expanding into
adjacent mappings. Now, the expansion of an upward-growing mapping into an
adjacent mapping is caught and the responsible program is killed by sending it
the SIGBUS signal. (BZ#659289)
All users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which resolve these
issues. The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.
Solution
Before applying this update, make sure all previously-released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.
This update is available via the Red Hat Network. Details on how to
use the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-11259
Affected Products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.4 x86_64
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.4 ia64
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.4 i386
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 5.4 s390x
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 5.4 ppc
Fixes
- BZ - 651816 - [5.5] Hangs up during booting due to a spinlock problem. [rhel-5.4.z]
- BZ - 659289 - kernel: additional stack guard patches [rhel-5.4.z]
CVEs
(none)
References
(none)
The Red Hat security contact is secalert@redhat.com. More contact details at https://access.redhat.com/security/team/contact/.